Stringed musical instruments produce sound from vibrating strings communicated to the air by the body of the instrument. Desired sounds are made by controlling which strings vibrate. An autoharp or chorded zither is a type of stringed musical instrument that has a series of chord bars attached to dampers which contact desired ones of the strings to keep them from vibrating, while the strings are strummed.
Typically, an autoharp has a plurality of strings, often 36 and a chord bar configured to play from about 12 to 21 chords by having 12 to 21 chord bars. Chords represent desired sounds and correspond to sets of harmonically-related notes. There are various types of chords, such as major and minor chords, and such chords are demarked to pitch classes. In an autoharp, pressing a chord bar depresses a damper to keep all the strings from vibrating except those that form a desired chord. Each chord typically requires a unique finger movement to play that chord. Learning multiple finger movements to be able to play multiple chords takes extensive practice. Accordingly, improvement is desired in the provision of a chord bar system that reduces the complexity of playing different chords.
The present disclosure provides a chord bar system for stringed musical instruments that enables the playing of different chords by use of a single finger movement.